Contents

Overview

Under a Buyer Credit Facility we provide a guarantee to a bank making a loan to an overseas buyer, so that capital goods and/or services can be purchased. Loans can be made in the main trading currencies (including sterling, US dollars and euros) as well as some local currencies.

Eligibility

The following criteria must be met:

the exporter must be carrying on business in the UK

the export contract must have a value of at least £5 million or the equivalent in foreign currency

the bank making the loan must be acceptable to us

How it works

The loan agreement is between the overseas buyer and the bank. UK Export Finance provides a guarantee to the bank that the loan will be repaid. The bank then uses the loan to pay the exporter for goods and/or services delivered. The UK exporter sells the capital goods and/or services to the overseas buyer.

Read the quick guide to credit terms
(PDF, 323KB, 2 pages)
related to the export contract we are asked to support, which includes what is meant by credit terms, what terms can be agreed, the amount of credit that can be supported, starting point of credit, length of credit and repayments of credit.

Read the quick guide to recourse which includes what recourse is, when it is sought and required, when we exercise recourse, from whom it is sought, the amount of recourse, release from recourse and the Lloyds recourse indemnity policy.

Benefits of Buyer Credit

the buyer or borrower has time to pay over a number of years and can borrow at fixed or floating rates

the lending bank receives a guarantee from us for full repayment of the loan plus interest

Risks covered

The lending bank is protected against non-payment, for whatever reasons, of the instalments of principal and interest due under the guaranteed loan.

Maximum amount

The maximum amount that can be made available under the loan is 85% of the contract value. A minimum of 15% of the contract value must be paid directly to the exporter by the buyer before the loan starts to be repaid. Of the 15%, a down payment of at least 5% should be received upon contract signature.

We can consider support for foreign content (that is, the cost to the exporter of purchasing goods or services from sub-contractors outside the UK) of up to 80% of the export contract’s value.

Term

The period for repayment of the loan must be at least 2 years.

Cost

There is no fee for the application. The premium payable for our guarantee is determined on a case by case basis.

Use our premium indicator tool to obtain an indicative premium rate for transactions where UKEF will be supporting a contract with an overseas sovereign buyer as the risk entity.

Disclaimer

The information available in this brochure is not intended to be a comprehensive description of our Buyer Credit Facility and many details which are relevant to particular circumstances may have been omitted.

When considering applications, underwriters will look at each case on its merits.

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